Travis County Commissioners Court
May 15, 2007
Item 33
We have with us today representative from the central Texas regional mobility authority, and item number 33 is to receive the presentation of central Texas regional mobility authority's annual report for fiscal year 2006.
>> my name is is--mario espi espinoza. We are her to present our anne you'll report for 2006. I will let bill walk you through the document. I do have copies that I can share with you.
>> I do not have a copy.
>> everybody should have one.
>> extra.
>> I have mine.
>> would you like to have one so I can go through?
>> I would rather have the one I have notes on. Thank you though.
>> the important information because I'm the financial person, really starts on page 22. All the other is just other things that have happened to the agency in the past year and looking forward. On page 25 we have our independent auditor's report an unqualified opinion. We are going to continue using helen donovan, true , vy and will kin son. We don't want to hire another person, we have 11 people on staff. We are going to hire them to do our internal auditing and they are going to dough internal auditing work as we start to collect tools, which just happened starting in may. On page 26, starts the actual financial statements. One of the important things is our assets. You can see we added almost $100 million to the construct work in process. That is the construction of the toll road. When all is said and done, total for that will probably be somewhere in the $280 million range. As far as our income statement, again we had not been collected tolls so really that is just some interest earnings we have earned. The rest of the interest earnings that don't show up there are capitalized until the road actually opens and we accept it, which is about July 2.
>> .
>> what road do you have in mind ?
>> this is 183, our only road at the moment.
>> okay.
>> the construction project had 730 days in our cda agreement. It opened to traffic on the 730th day. We started collecting cash tolls may 1. The amount of transactions actually are three times, earning three times what the original traffic and revenue project shuns were. The road is doing well. We are going to collect electronic totals starting June 1 at 50 percent of the rate and then in jewel it would be a full rate, which is actually ten percent less than the cash rate if you use electronic tooling.
>> with a is the rate today ?
>> 50 cents for twost plaza plaza--two of the plazaels, brushy creek and heart is 150. That is correct ?
>> I think it's 1.10.
>> fifty to 1.10. When it increases--
>> no, the cash one remains the same. Right now free for people using the tex tag and it will be 50 percent during July for people using the tex tag, or since we have an interlocal agreement with har ix county and ntaa which is dallas, those tags work on our roads, the tex tag works on their roads. They also get the discount. Once we are in full operation, if you use electronic tags there's a ten percent discount continuously for using electronic tag versus cash.
>> okay.
>> judge, Commissioners, in terms of numbers bill is alluding to, the traffic and revenue study was an estimate of 24,000 transactions per day. Currently, with the tex tag, those with tex tag are able to go free this month, we are seeing 70,000 transactions a day, almost three times the anticipated or estimated number.
>> has there been any estimate of whether or not there will be a fall off of those 70,000 transactions per day once it goes to 50 percent and then to ten percent discount ?
>> we believe that there will be. Tex tag when it was tex tta when they started using it had about a 50 percent drop from their total number of transactions once they started full tolling the penetration level of the tex tag is, we believe, between 70 and 80 percent.
>> when we talk in terms of penetration, we mean the number of vehicles that actually have active tex tags on windshields. That is still a high percentage compared to some of the roads outside the state I think that may be in line to what other roads are doing in central Texas area.
>> the 50 percent drop-off will put you at about 35,000 transactions per day but that is still roughly 11,000 more per day than projected.
>> we were at more than 100 100,000 transactions before we started tolling the cash toll. We think we will wind up somewhere in the 50,000. If you would like n 60 days we can actually send you a report and tell you how we are doing if you are interested in that . Will this increased transactions per day generate a discussion about the reduction in the cash toll since it would be bringing in considerably more in revenue than projected ?
>> the purpose of this is to turn the cash that is over and above the operating cost into other projects. What we are going to do is work with the mpo and find out what projects are on their priority list, and that cash will help finance some of these other projects projects. That is the intent of what we are doing.
>> I understand. But if the it's considerably higher, one argue could argue that would justify coming down in the fees.
>> again, yes, but that is a policy decision of our board board. I mean, that is at a higher level than either mario or myself.
>> indeed, if it was a glitch reported on the news media a little bit ago, software problem, I guess, that people were being charged--
>> there was some testing.
>> --did that ef--ever get resolved ?
>> it is my understanding it did get resolved there was some testing being done by our contractor on the electronic toll collection system and they turned on the--collection system, if you will, was actually turned on for a few hours Saturday night, Sunday morning. So those vehicles that went through were charged for going through even though that was during the free toll period. The free pay period. So those charges are being reversed.
>> they have been reversed ?
>> it's my an understanding they have been. We work closely with tta because with the contract with them, tta is the Texas turnpike authority which oversees all the tex tag transactions. We have a contract with them to do our back room, if you will. They are a third party administrator for the tex tags for us.
>> don't use back room. That terminology.
>> okay in any case, they are our third party administrator for tex tag. So we are working with them to get all those charges reversed. My an understanding, that is being addressed and has been addressed.
>> okay.
>> do we have an estimate of what the cash toll value breaks out to per mile ?
>> depends upon when you get on the road, at what point.
>> what is the range, the least ?
>> if you get in, I think it's probably a dollar something if you get in on one ramp. We have that. I did not bring that with. I'd be glad to send that to send--send that to you.
>> that would be grade.
>> let's let you finish the financial report and we'll see if there are some other questions.
>> I'm basically done unless you want to go through the numbers. I'm excited about numbers but usually people aren't. I tried to give you the highlights. The bands that we issued, which make January 1 of 2008 we are going to use a tifia loan to take those out. Then we have a schedule of that service payment that goes for actually about 40 years.
>> any other questions ?
>> how many ads do you think we have sold in this central Texas area to date? I had heard something over 2 200,000.
>> in the tex tag, I guess all the tags that have been issued, I believe the numbers are about 270,000 that have been sold.
>> 270.
>> that is correct.
>> do we have any kind of a breakdown, mayor mayor-- mayor--mario, on how many come from Travis County? Obviously, maybe all, not quite all, but most of the toll roads at this stage, I suppose a little bit of 45 north has a little bit of Travis County.
>> we actually have it by zip code. I don't know if steve has a map, our communications director. . I will see if we can e-mail that to you also.
>> this report is a matter of public record.
>> it is.
>> for those members of the public who would wish to receive a copy, they can e-mail you at mobility authority, all together without spacing.
>> correct.
>> dot com.
>> correct.
>> or phone the office at 99 996-9778.
>> also correct.
>> this is Travis County. We like the people to be informed.
>> very good.
>> thank you very much for coming down. By law, Travis County Commissioners court is supposed to receive the annual report. We don't have to approve it or anything. Right ?
>> correct.
>> we have received it.
>> very good.
>> thank you very much. Thank you panel.
>> thank you submissioners.
>> thank you.
>> if is joe
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 8:00 AM